I took the kids to see a local pediatrician this morning. It took me a long time to choose one and make an appointment, partly because I kept hoping I’d get someone to recommend a good one to me who takes our insurance. People have recommended a couple of good ones, but they don’t take our insurance. Finally, I just picked a practice based on proximity to our apartment, then (of the four in the office) chose the pediatrician who was male because Degen seems to be less shy around men. Great way to choose, no? But, we won’t have this insurance many more months because Colin’s not going to keep teaching at this school next year, and I wanted to make sure we had the kids’ physical status checked and get shots updated.
Speaking of shots, I’m going to say something rather controversial. My mother didn’t have my three youngest siblings vaccinated back in the early 90s, I guess because she questioned whether all the ingredients in the immunizations were safe. When I had kids, I called her to get her advice on shots and she said that since she’d gone to medical school and seen more research and information about the newer vaccines she’d decided that they’re safe and she’d have the kids immunized now if she had time. However, she said that she thinks it’s somewhat unnescessary to immunize babies unless they’re going to be in daycare or another high-risk place for getting diseases. She suggested that, since I’d be staying home with them and their access to infected people would be extremely limited, I might want to wait a year or so before having them get their shots so that their little immune systems would be more developed when they deal with the onslaught. So, that’s what Colin and I decided to do.
We started Degen’s schedule of shots at a year and Maggie got her first shots today (18 months) and they’ve both been exceptionally healthy. When our new doctor here questioned me about why these were Maggie’s first shots, I explained the above to him, and he (understandably) told me that he disagreed with my decision and told me that “there’s a web site of women like you telling their stories of how they regret their decision to not immunize their children.” The obligatory guilt trip over after I smiled sympathetically, he mentioned in a rather surprised tone that my kids are really actually very healthy. He took a look in their ears and down their throats, told me they’re growing well, asked me if they fight a lot (they don’t), and handed me some informational paperwork on potty training. Then he sent in the nurse to do the shots.
At our old doctor’s office in Utah (American Fork Clinic, Dr. Hoggard), they had a great nursing staff. When they did a big set of shots (two or more at a time), they would send in two nurses and administer two shots simultaneously, efficiently and effectively. It was awesome. The nurse at my new doctor’s office did a great job today, but she was only one person, and Maggie got four sticks in succession in her chubby little legs. I prefer the other system. Maggie didn’t scream until the third shot, but then she made it known that she was not interested in putting up with us any more. All the shots finished, she screamed and cried for about three more minutes and then I gave her a sucker that the doctor had handed me for her on his way out and she quickly became cheerful again. The one odd thing about the process was that the nurse explained the normal sysmptoms and when to worry or not about her shots as she gave the shots. I heard nothing. I was busy trying to calm Maggie down to hear her over Maggie’s screams. Luckily, she gave me some paperwork explaining everything (I hope!) she’d just said. Of course, I was so distraught about my injured baby that I forgot to take the paperwork with me and didn’t realize it until I’d gotten both kids buckled happily into their car seats and had to undo my heroic work and go back into the office and ask another nurse to go searching for the papers. And no, I didn’t know which room number we’d been in. And then we repeated the walk-to-the-car and buckle-up processes.
Degen is really into chivalry, to my delight and chagrin. He likes to hold doors open for people as they enter or leave, and it’s very cute and a habit I want to encourage. The downside comes when I’m trying to corral both him and his sister into or out of a building and he wants to stay and hold the door open for the next 10 people while I try to figure out why he refuses to obey my command to “come!” That happened to us today BOTH times we left the doctor’s office on the way to the car. An ancient gentleman who was going into the office was confused about why Degen wanted to hold the door open for him–hopefully he wasn’t insulted.
